The latest report features a comprehensive overview of the finances at all ten current Prem Rugby clubs, together with analysis of the league’s introduction of a new £5.4m salary floor and an assessment of Red Bull’s takeover of Newcastle.

It concludes that while the move to a franchise-style structure for Prem Rugby and new investment are positive steps forward for the league, the game continues to face deep-rooted challenges which any new investor will need to grapple with.

The figures show that combined revenues for Prem Rugby clubs fell to £178.9m in 2024/25, down from £182.2m the previous year, while the total amount spent on wage bills, covering all staff costs, rose to £129.8m, up from £125.9m in 2023/24.

The average wage to revenue ratio across the ten clubs increased to 80 per cent for 2024/25, compared with 75 per cent the previous season, marking the third year in a row the ratio has risen.

Total losses across the league climbed to £36.5m in 2024/25, up from £34m in 2023/24, again a third successive annual increase. The latest cumulative figure represents an average loss per club of £3.7m, equivalent to around £308,000 per month and roughly £77,000 per week.

Combined debt levels also continued to rise, reaching £366.1m in 2024/25, an increase from £342.5m in 2023/24, while for a second successive year the same set of six Prem Rugby clubs could be classed as balance sheet insolvent in 2024/25.

Alex Cadwallader, a Leonard Curtis director and former England U21 rugby union player, said: “The findings in our latest report should not come as a surprise to anyone who has shown an interest in the financial state of the professional club game in England.

“The figures show Prem Rugby sides have continued to make a combined loss of over £30m each year and highlight the significant challenges that remain within the game. Without any deep structural or governance changes, why would we expect the results to be any different?”

Cadwallader – who played for Newcastle, Bristol, Newport and London Welsh over a 10-year career – welcomed Prem Rugby’s switch to a franchise-style model, but stressed the game must tackle underlying issues such as cost control for the move to deliver financial stability.

In the 2025 edition of the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report, the firm drew upon its 30 years of restructuring expertise to examine how the English top-flight could be structured under a new model and what financial benefits it might bring.

The analysis concluded that through a franchise licensing system clubs could save between £1.1m to £1.9m annually on a typical £20m turnover from shared services, combined with centralised governance.

The analysis of competitive balance in the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report 2026 reveals contrasting developments for Prem Rugby and Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR).

The assessment shows that over the past three seasons the overall competitive balance of Prem Rugby – in terms of the distribution of points across the league – has weakened, with the gap in performance between clubs widening.

Despite a run of six different winners of the Prem Rugby title in six successive seasons between 2019/20 and 2024/25, the 2025/26 competition recorded the greatest imbalance between teams since 2013/14.

For the PWR, the report found that while it remains less competitively balanced than the men’s top-flight it has shown a sustained improvement, with the 2025/26 season proving the most competitive since the league’s inception in 2017/18, indicating the league as a whole is becoming more evenly matched.